


When Summer Comes

by RoonilWazlibMalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Diagon Alley, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Second War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27012745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoonilWazlibMalfoy/pseuds/RoonilWazlibMalfoy
Summary: Percy missed Severus. When he heard of a new potions shop on Diagon Alley, he wasted no time in going to visit.
Relationships: Severus Snape/Percy Weasley
Comments: 15
Kudos: 39





	When Summer Comes

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Weasleys, Witches, and Writers Hump Day Drabble for 14 October 2020. I'm hoping that this little bit of Percerus fluff will pull me out of my writing slump.
> 
> The title comes from Alice By the Hudson by AJR, which was what I was listening to while writing this. 
> 
> Enjoy!

When Percy heard from a colleague that a new apothecary had opened on Diagon Alley, he didn't need to ask who was running it because he already knew. A million jumbled thoughts rushed through his intelligent mind. _Should I visit? What should I say?_ But it was really too late to ask himself those questions because the moment the words had left his co-worker's lips, he had already spun and Apparated, leaving a stunned Ministry Worker gaping in his office.

The dark-haired man looked the same as he always had, Percy thought as he stepped into the new shop. He pushed his glasses up and looked around the shop instead, aiming for his own meticulous brand of nonchalance. Everything was neat and in order – not that he'd expect anything less from the potions master – and the room smelled exotic, like fairy wings and cloves and cauldron smoke and magic. It smelled like Severus.

Standing back in the shadows near a crate of billywig stings, he watched Severus serving his customers, his trademark sneer in place. Percy was pleased to note how busy the new store was. Of course, everyone would be glad to purchase potions brewed by Severus Snape. Everyone knew that he was the best. But they didn't see all that Percy saw.

They didn't see how sharp his black eyes were, the way they took in every detail. They didn't see the slight quirk to his mouth when he was amused. They didn't see how incredibly smart and compelling and viciously witty he was. They didn't really see him at all.

Much the same way that they didn't see Percy. Not really. They saw an uptight boy, always willing to follow the rules, wanting to be perfect, filled with ambition. They didn't see him struggle to please his parents, to keep them from worrying, to give them one less thing to worry about. They didn't see how hard he tried to be respectable, to be respected, in a world that wrote him off because of red hair and a childhood spent in relative poverty.

But Severus saw him. Even now, as the man was finishing up with a customer, Percy knew that he saw him. He didn't show it, his movements as graceful and measured as ever, but Percy knew. Severus saw everything.

After the last customer had left the building, a neatly-wrapped parcel clasped in their hands, Severus came out from behind the counter. His black robes were the same, his long pale fingers tipped by black-painted nails were the same. Percy's emotions, ones that he had pushed down and blocked from his mind over the course of the past year, were the same and they all came rushing back.

"What are you doing here?" Severus asked, his voice low and smooth.

"My mum asked about you," Percy replied, mentally slapping himself as soon as the words came out. _Really, Perce?_ he thought. _That's your smooth opener?_ He wiped his sweaty palms on his warm brown cloak.

Amusement pulled at the corners of Severus' mouth. "We haven't seen one another for over a year and that's the first thing you say to me?"

Percy looked down into Severus' sharp face. It had always amazed him that he was taller, by a half-dozen inches, than Severus Snape. The man had always seemed larger than life back at Hogwarts.

"Tell me why you left, Severus," he said finally. That was really what he wanted – no, needed – to know.

Severus looked down, one pale hand reaching up to tug at his inky hair. Percy's fingers twitched, itching to smooth that hair down, to wrap it around his fingers, to press his face against it as he had once done.

"The war was over," Severus said softly. "We both had things to rebuild."

He was right and Percy knew it. They both had broken relationships and broken lives after the war. They had each done what needed doing and what they had thought right at the time, but it had been difficult to recover from. In fact Severus, with that black snake branded upon his arm, had been more the hero, more highly regarded, than Percy had been, which wasn't saying particularly much.

"We could have rebuilt together," Percy replied finally, matching Severus' tone.

"Don't you see?" Severus almost hissed, his thin mouth twisted. "I needed to be alone. I needed to do it alone. I had never done anything on my own before. I am no one's dog any longer."

Percy knew the kinds of remarks and insults that Severus had borne, because he had borne many of them as well. He didn't resist the urge to touch Severus that time, reaching up and brushing his thin freckled knuckles along the man's pale jaw. "I understand, Severus," he said. "Only... I've missed you."

Huffing out a laugh, Severus professed, "I may have missed you as well. I never thought I'd be the sort to spend time pining over a Weasley." His black eyes were fathomless, his expression warm but wary.

Percy smiled then. "Well, I'm not quite like any other Weasley, you know."

"How right you are," he whispered back, lifting his own hand to tug on Percy's ginger curls, to softly touch his cheek. "I'm glad that you've found me."

Clasping both of Severus' hands in his, he bit his lip and looked at the man head on, willing the sincerity that he felt to come through in his words, to shine from his face. "Now that I've found you, I don't want to let go again."

Dark eyes studied his, dark brows furrowed in contemplation. "Alright," he said softly, definitively.

When he pressed his lips to Percy's just then, it was a kiss that held all the promise of summer, the kind of kiss that artists paint and poets write of. And Percy knew that, in spite of the trouble of the war and the rebuilding of their lives, he had found his person once again.


End file.
